Key Change Archives - Song Exploder

Key Change: Emma Straub

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:33:47 +0000

‘69 Love Songs’ by The Magnetic Fields

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My guest today is the bestselling author Emma Straub. Her books include This Time Tomorrow, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, and more. And with her husband, Michael Fusco, she co-owns the beautiful Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic.

I’m so thrilled to have her on because, not only is she a wonderful writer, but Key Change is a series about music fandom and identity. And Emma’s newest novel American Fantasy is also about music fandom and identity. That story is set on a cruise ship centered around a nineties boy band and their fans.

But today, Emma’s going to tell me her story about her own relationship with the music of the Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields was just named one of the greatest living American songwriters by the New York Times, and Emma’s introduction to their music was their 1999 triple album, 69 Love Songs.

You can buy or stream 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields here.

footnotes:
Claudia Gonson
LD Beghtol
Future Bible Heroes, The Gothic Archies
“Epitaph For My Heart,” “Long-Forgotten Fairytale,” “Grand Canyon,” “The Book of Love,” “It’s Only Time,” and “Walking My Gargoyle”
Emma Straub’s Magnetic Fields tour blog

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Key Change: Baz Luhrmann

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:12:07 +0000

“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper

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My guest today is Baz Luhrmann, the award-winning director whose films include Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom, The Great Gatsby, Elvis, and Romeo + Juliet. His newest film is EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, a critically acclaimed documentary about Elvis that’s playing right now in theaters and in IMAX. Before becoming a massively successful film director, Baz began his showbiz career as an actor, and as a ballroom dancer, in Australia. His first film was Strictly Ballroom, which came out in 1992, and became one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time. It was originally a play, and there’s a song in the film that was part of the story all the way back when it was first performed on stage. And that’s what Baz and I talked about for this episode.

You can buy or stream “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper here.

footnotes:
“One” by John Farnham
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Cate Blanchett, and Mel Gibson
Ted Albert
Tara Morice and Craig Pearce

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Key Change: John Green

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:48:44 +0000

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” by Gerry and The Pacemakers

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My guest today is John Green. John is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, The Anthropocene Reviewed, and Everything is Tuberculosis. John and his brother Hank Green have co-created a lot of projects together, including their massive YouTube channel, ‘Vlogbrothers,’ and their podcast, Dear Hank and John. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for global health nonprofit Partners in Health. And when I asked John if there was a piece of music that changed his life, he knew the answer right away: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” by Gerry and the Pacemakers.

footnotes:
The musical Carousel
The Mountain Goats, Will Oldham, and Loretta Lynn

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Key Change: Rian Johnson

Mary Dolan — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:50:23 +0000

Wagner’s ‘Das Rheingold’

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My guest today is director Rian Johnson, which is exciting for me, because I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since seeing his first feature film, Brick, in 2006. Since then, he’s made six more feature films, including Looper in 2012; Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017; the murder mystery Knives Out in 2019; and his most recent movie, another in the Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, which is already out in theaters, and comes to Netflix on December 12. I talked to Rian about a piece of music that had a profound impact on him, which was the overture to Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner.

footnotes:
“Kill the Wabbit”
“La Traviata”
Focus Features
The Brothers Bloom
Opéra Bastille
Ring Cycle
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. J. Abrams
Terrence Malick
Nathan Johnson
Bayreuth Festival Theatre
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music by Alex Ross

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Key Change: Demi Adejuyigbe

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 15:21:05 +0000

“You Only Live Once” by The Strokes

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My guest today is Demi Adejuyigbe. One of the things that makes Demi so special is how hard it is to summarize him in an intro like this, because he has so many talents and applies them in so many different ways. He is a standup comedian, with a brand new one-hour special out on Dropout TV. He co-hosted the podcasts Gilmore Guys and Punch Up the Jam. He’s a screenwriter who wrote on TV shows like The Good Place. He’s famous on the internet for his parody songs, spoofing artists like Will Smith and Lana Del Rey; and for his September videos, where, for years, he made increasingly elaborate videos of himself, dancing to the Earth, Wind & Fire song. And he used the popularity of those videos to raise over a million dollars for charity. He’s also directed several music videos, including one that he made for one of my songs, back in 2022. And for this episode, we’re talking as much about a music video as the song within it. And that song is: “You Only Live Once” by The Strokes.

You can buy or stream “You Only Live Once” here.

You can watch Demi’s new special, Demi Adejuyigbe is Going to do One (1) Backflip, here.

footnotes:
Guitar Hero and Rock Band
First Impressions of Earth (album) – The Strokes
“Red Light” – The Strokes
Warren Fu
Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pink Floyd, and Jerry Garcia
“I’ll Try Anything Once” – The Strokes

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Key Change: David Chang

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 18:12:52 +0000

“I See a Darkness” by Bonnie “Prince” Billy

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My guest today is Chef David Chang. He founded Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2004. That was just the start of his incredible career – he’s opened several restaurants, winning awards and Michelin stars along the way, and becoming a fixture in the upper echelon of food. He’s the host of the Netflix shows Ugly Delicious and Dinner Time Live, as well as his own podcast, The Dave Chang Show. For this episode, I talked to Dave about the song “I See a Darkness.” It’s the title track on the album by Bonnie “Prince” Billy, aka Will Oldham, which came out in 1999. Later, Johnny Cash would cover “I See a Darkness” in 2000, as a duet with Will Oldham, as part of Johnny Cash’s acclaimed American series.

You can get Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “I See a Darkness” on vinyl or digital here.

footnotes:
Anthony Bourdain
The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon
Darkness Visible by Will Styron
Eat a Peach by David Chang
I See a Darkness – the album by Bonnie “Prince” Billy

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Key Change: Jia Tolentino

Mary Dolan — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 21:35:15 +0000

“I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis

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My guest today is Jia Tolentino. Jia is the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror, which was named one of the best books of 2019 by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Paris Review, and more. She won a National Magazine Award for her work at The New Yorker, where she’s been a staff writer since 2016. Her writing covers so many different topics, from Roe v. Wade, to the internet, to pop culture and music. And today, we’re going to talk about the 1996 pop hit “I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis.

You can buy or stream “I Love You Always Forever” here.

footnotes:
Addison Rae
Jewel
Mariah Carey
The Spice Girls
Alfonso Cuarón’s A Little Princess
Pocahontas
Mario Kart Rainbow Road
Neon Gold
The Hairpin
Emma Carmichael
Whitney Houston
“Sorry” – Justin Bieber
“Teenage Dream” – Katy Perry (produced by Max Martin)
“Run Away With Me” – Carly Rae Jepsen
“Pink Pony Club” – Chappell Roan
“Shake it Off” – Taylor Swift
Olivia Rodrigo

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Key Change: Jason Schwartzman

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:11:05 +0000

The ‘Rushmore’ Soundtrack

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Jason Schwartzman, actor, songwriter, and musician, talks about how the soundtrack to Rushmore—his first film—changed his life. I met Jason briefly in 2017, as he was leaving the room where I was supposed to interview the band Phoenix. I was shocked when he stopped on his way out to tell me he loved Song Exploder. Eight years later, I reached out to him to see if he’d want to be a guest on Key Change, and we ended up talking for almost two hours, just on the phone. By the time he came over to record, I felt like I’d met a kindred spirit who’d also been cataloguing his whole life through the songs he’d encountered along the way. The fact that we got to talk about one of my favorite movies, Rushmore, made the experience even more meaningful and thrilling for me.

You can buy or stream the Rushmore soundtrack here.

footnotes:
Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia Coppola
Bernice Bobs Her Hair
Phantom Planet is Missing – Phantom Planet
Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters
Pinkerton – Weezer
The Kinks
“A Quick One, While He’s Away” – The Who
“Making Time” – The Creation
“Rue St. Vincent”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
“Puttin’ on the Ritz” – Taco

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Key Change: Shirley Manson

Mary Dolan — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 21:31:49 +0000

“Drop Dead/Celebration” by Siouxsie and the Banshees

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My guest today is Shirley Manson. Since 1994, she’s been the lead singer of the band Garbage, and she is a bona fide rock icon. The two of us worked together on a different podcast called The Jump, which Shirley hosted and I helped produce. It was a dream of mine to get Shirley as the host of that podcast, partly because, as you’re about to hear, she has one of the greatest voices, and I could listen to her talk about anything. And so I’m especially excited to listen to her today tell me about a song that changed her life.

You can buy or stream “Drop Dead/Celebration” here.

footnotes:
“Happy House” – Siouxsie and the Banshees
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Top of the Pops
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie
“Felt” – Garbage
Kurt Cobain
Steve Marker
John Lennon
The Cure
“Suffocate Me” – Angelfish
David Bowie
Iggy Pop
Madonna
Let All That We Imagine Be The Light – Garbage

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Key Change: Samin Nosrat

Mary Dolan — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 23:39:32 +0000

“Untouchable Face” by Ani DiFranco

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My guest today is my friend Samin Nosrat, the author of the bestselling, award-winning cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat, and the host and executive producer of the hit Netflix show that’s based on it. Her second cookbook comes out this fall, and it’s called Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share With People You Love.

Back in March 2020, Samin and I started a podcast together called Home Cooking, where we answered people’s anxious questions about cooking in the time of the pandemic and lockdown. And we’re bringing that podcast back later this year.

Samin is one of my closest friends. We’ve been there for each other for all of the most important moments of our lives over the years that we’ve known each other. But with a total lack of consideration to our friendship, it turns out Samin’s had important moments in her life from before we met. But we’re going to make up for lost time, and she’s going to talk to me about one of them today.

You can buy or stream “Untouchable Face” here.

footnotes:
Ani DiFranco
Felicity with Keri Russell
Louis Armstrong, Roberta Flack, and Ella Fitzgerald
Perry Farrell, Violent Femmes, and Phish

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